WORK HARD OR PLAY HARD? DEGREE CLASS, STUDENT LEADERSHIP AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Stijn Baert and Dieter Verhaest

Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium from Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

Abstract: We investigated the impact on first hiring outcomes of two main curriculum vitae (CV) characteristics by which graduates with a tertiary education degree distinguish themselves from their peers: degree class and extra-curricular activities. These characteristics were randomly assigned to 2,800 fictitious job applications that were sent to real vacancies in Belgium. Academic performance and extra-curricular engagement both enhanced job interview rates by about 7%. The effect of a higher degree class was driven by female (versus male) candidates and candidates with a master’s (versus a bachelor’s) degree. We did not find evidence for these CV characteristics to be substitutes or to reinforce each other’s effect.

Keywords: degree class; extra-curricular activities; hiring; field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 I23 J23 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2019-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-hrm and nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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http://wps-feb.ugent.be/Papers/wp_19_975.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Work Hard or Play Hard? Degree Class, Student Leadership and Employment Opportunities* (2021)
Working Paper: Work Hard or Play Hard? Degree Class, Student Leadership and Employment Opportunities (2018)
Working Paper: Work Hard or Play Hard? Degree Class, Student Leadership and Employment Opportunities (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rug:rugwps:19/975

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